A Case of Indian Marvels (Aleph Book Company, 390 pp; Rs 999), a collection of 40 short stories from 40 authors below the age of 40, is a marvel indeed for multiple reasons. That it is edited by the managing director and publisher of Aleph Book Company, David Davidar, is one of them. At a time when publishers actively discourage authors to write short story collections and nudge them towards a novel instead, this book is a salve for plot-thirsty souls.
“Publishers will often suggest that writers attempt to write novels rather than put together story collections because for some reason that I cannot really explain. It’s a fact that novels usually outsell story collections unless you are in the league of Alice Munro, Raymond Carter, V.S. Pritchett, Jorge Luis Borges, and Ruskin Bond. all of whom have achieved great renown as short story writers,” said Davidar in a conversation with The Telegraph ahead of the book’s release.
Davidar reminiscences his encounter with Bill Buford, on a winter evening in Cambridge. The former reviver and editor of Granta magazine had shared with Davidar his idea of adventure and originality that must be steeped in the pages of the story. Over the years, Davidar has formed his own idea of what makes a story great and we get a glimpse of that in A Case of Indian Marvels.
“The idea for the book was seeded in my mind a few years ago and began to sprout in 2020, when I realised the oldest writers of the millennial generation were about to turn 40, and a good number of writers of Generation Z were now in their 20s. It seemed as good a time as any to take stock of what they had accomplished,” he said.
The politically aware and conscious stories of this book speak volumes about the thinking process and emotional depth of millennials. They are people caught in the nostalgia of the pre-Internet era and a growing servitude and revulsion for a post-Internet world. Their awareness is acute and their need to be heard is justified.
A.M Gautam’s The Alligator of Aligarh narrates the tale of an unlikely friendship between Kalua, who cleans sewers, and Safeda, an alligator trapped there; In Meera Ganapathi’s story Mrs Nischol, an ageing woman privately mourns the death of a film-star, away from the misunderstanding gaze of society; In Shamik Ghosh’s Bengali story After Half-Time that is translated to English by Subha Prasad Sanyal, a man hesitantly questions his privilege, remembering his old friend Lebu.
From gender roles to ageism, the entire collection of stories raises questions, leaving the reader with conflicted thoughts on their mind. “Writers do reflect the reality of the society they are part of, and as ours is a deeply dysfunctional society which is getting worse in many ways, it’s not surprising that these stories probe the fault-lines. I do have a predilection for such stories provided they are not overly didactic or preachy or prescriptive as these dilute their excellence as fiction,” Davidar said.
The dividing line between what is considered preachy and what is not has remained subjective. Authors with reputable oeuvre may, in the name of social consciousness, often get away with more than a fledgling author would. However, these are not authors who claim to command authority over sensitive subjects. They, like great writers, shine their light on fiction and their awareness can’t help but shine through.
It brings us to the question — must all fiction be socially responsible? “I don’t think all fiction ought to be socially responsible but it’s no accident that a good proportion of the greatest literary fiction of any era is socially or politically aware,” Davidar adds. He remembers classics like Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera — every one of them a piece of fiction that is wrapped around the great social and political issues of their time.
For shorter formats, he remembers Draupadi by Mahashweta Devi, After the Hanging by O.V. Vijayan, and The Shroud by Premchand — ‘all address issues whether directly or allusively’. However, he is quick to add, “But my preferences notwithstanding, the ultimate criterion for inclusion in this book was literary excellence.”
A Case of Indian Marvels is a searing look at contemporary India, some set in the hinterlands of the country and some in urban townships, unified by gorgeous prose by authors, some of whom already have critically-acclaimed books to their name. Launched on September 1, the illustrious list of contributors includes the likes of Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Kanishk Tharoor, Madhuri Vijay, Neel Patel, and Prayaag Akbar.
Davidar took this opportunity to throw light on what we can expect from Aleph Book Company in the near future. B.R. Ambedkar’s new biography by Shashi Tharoor (Ambedkar: A Life) and A New History of India by Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Shobhita Punjab, and Toby Sinclair are two books he is really looking forward to.
“The former is a must-read for anybody with the faintest interest in politics of our country and the founding of the republic, and a titan whom many think is the greatest Indian who ever lived. In the latter, the authors are trying to present the history of our country from its origins several thousand years ago to the present day in a way that has never been attempted before by marrying lively authentic scholarship with great photographs, maps and illustrations on every single page of the book,” he said.
A debut novel by Karan Madhok called A Beautiful Decay has him excited as has Salil Tripathi’s biography of the Gujarati community The Gujaratis. Speaking at length about the latter, Davidar said, “It’s a book that goes deeply into every aspect of a community that has thrown up saints, scientists, tyrants, tricksters, prominent politicians, industrialists, and cultural geniuses. How did this sedate mercantile community on the west coast morph into a place that has given us such a host of notable personalities?”
